The sluggish housing market makes now a good time to purchase furniture. (Photo: iStockphoto)
The living/dining room in my home has remained nearly empty since the day we moved in about seven years ago. The room is hard to furnish -- it's the first space one enters when walking into my home. Not to mention that it's narrow and really isn't large enough to be called a living room and a dining room. (My husband likes to say that our home is designed more like a townhome, not a single-family house.)
Not to mention that my daughters loving playing in the open space that the unfurnished room affords. Plenty of tea parties and impromptu performances are put on there.
Furniture discounts
But recently, I have been thinking about taking the plunge and purchasing a dining room table. We had a party at our home last weekend, and we placed a card table where a dining table should be to provide extra seating. The table didn't really take up that much space in the room, and didn't get in the way of the flow of the room (the kitchen is accessed from the living/dining room) as much as I thought it would.
But if I want to buy a table, it seems that I better get moving quickly. Thanks to the recession, there are discounts to be had on furniture these days, as homeowners put off making major purchases. In fact, Forbes.com places furniture on its list (with other big-ticket items like laptops and TVs) of things to buy before the recession ends.
Home sales up, furniture sales down
And now that homebuilders are reporting signs of an improvement in the housing market (with more house hunters visiting model homes and putting deposits down on houses), I really ought to get out there and start shopping. That's because if consumers' purchases of new homes start to rise, furniture sales will increase, too. Once more people start making purchases to furnish their new homes, all those lovely sales available now are likely to disappear. Now if only Thomasville (one of my favorite furniture retailers) would launch a big sale, I would be in business.—Lauren Baier Kim